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Kaila Hochholder officially new pastor

Congregation charged to welcome all

By Dan Barker

Times News Editor

Posted:
03/10/2014 11:14:34 AM MDT

At the height of the installation ceremony, Bishop Jim Gonia blesses new Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer Pastor Kaila Hochhalter Saturday at the church in Fort Morgan on Saturday. (Dan Barker / Fort Morgan Times)

Kaila Hochhalter was officially installed as the new pastor of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Fort Morgan in a ceremony on Saturday.

Hochhalter had actually been performing pastoral services for the church since she arrived in the city about a month ago, but the certification of the call to the church and the blessing of Bishop Jim Gonia of the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America made it official.

A number of local pastors and pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church came to give their good wishes to their colleague. Pastors came from Akron, Sterling, Fort Collins, Greeley, Eaton and Denver, as well as parts of Morgan County.

From left, Rockie Ernst of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Fort Morgan presented the certification of the church's call for Kaila Hochhalter to become pastor of the church to Bishop Jim Gonia during the installation ceremony Saturday. (Dan Barker / Fort Morgan Times)

After the installation, Hochhalter said she grew up in Phoenix, Ariz., attended the California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where she studied theater arts, and graduated the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Ill. She was assigned to the Rocky Mountain Synod, interviewed with the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer and was called to serve there.

She also worked at the Montana Lutheran Bible Camp.

Hochhalter said she had a call to become a pastor at the age of 16, and she spent time in college discerning whether that call was real for her.

"I'm extremely grateful," she told the crowd at the church. "I do truly feel called to be here."

Hochhalter also said she was about the ministries the church can perform, and the ministries already in place.

She also said she could feel the Holy Spirit working in this church in a letter to the congregation.

"God is in each of us," Hochhalter said, "God's love is in each of us."

Fort Morgan residents have been very welcoming, she said.

She has already made connections with the local ministerial alliance, and that group is working on funding the money to repair vehicles that were recently damaged during what looks like a hate crime against immigrants.

Bishop Jim Gonia of the Rockie Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America receives a gift basket from Margie Dorn of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Fort Morgan. (Dan Barker / Fort Morgan Times)

She is an extrovert and enjoys the outdoors and hiking, Hochhalter said.

She said she would enjoy chances to talk with local residents, as well as the church members.

Ceremony

During his sermon and comments before the liturgy for communion, Gonia told the congregation that this was "a very important moment in your life" and the life of the community.

That day Hochhalter joined with a church that is one of 165 congregations in the United States and many more internationally, he said.

Gonia emphasized being a church together, noting that Hochhalter will serve as pastor for the whole church, not just an individual, and spoke of how all congregations are connected.

He said the ministry the church has to offer matters, because it "changes and transforms lives."

Gonia explained that Hochhalter is not just in this church because of a committee or the bishop's office, but because "God has called you here."

During the ceremony, Gonia referred to a reading during the liturgy that day. Isaiah Chapter 40 talks of "Every valley will be raised up and every mountain and hill will be leveled ..." That kind of talk is something this society is not used to, since society wants to know winners and losers, and living that kind of life will not make anyone popular, Gonia said.

But knowing all are equal to God is good news, because it is "true for you and your neighbor ... every single neighbor," he emphasized.

A ministry to others begins at the church as it creates its sacred space, "where all God's children are indeed welcome," Gonia said.

This ministry also extends into the community. People are hungry for a word of grace, he said.

The gospel reading at the service came from John Chapter 21, where Jesus asks Peter to "Feed my sheep."

Gonia asked how the congregation would respond to this call to "feed his flock?"

That is not simple, since every congregation is different, but members should talk with friends and colleagues, and look at the various gifts seen in the church. That can help members see how they can put those gifts into action, he said.

In all of this, no one journeys alone. They go together as children of God in the power of the Holy Spirit, Gonia said.

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